Israel's intrepid tourists see sun, sand . . . and terror

On his most recent holiday, Jerome Chapman signed up for a package tour that offered a visit to "one of the main terrorist infiltration routes" into Israel and a briefing by a "leading expert on bomb blast injuries".

The itinerary for the 64-year-old Washington trade practices lawyer also included lunch at a Jewish settlement "on the front line", a demonstration by elite military forces on methods of "self-defence against terrorists in Arab villages", and chats with "terror victims".

"It is not grandma's trip to Israel," said Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, director of the Shurat HaDin Israel Law Centre, which hosted Mr Chapman and 74 other participants from around the world for last month's "Ultimate Mission" program. "It's a look at the hard-core realities of terrorism for people who are hard-core buffs of Israeli news, intelligence and security."

A few weeks earlier, another Washingtonian, Kasey Cook, 25, joined a boisterous Christian solidarity march through Jerusalem. "We're here to shout and show that Israel is not alone," she said between group chants of "Hallelujah to the God of Israel" and "USA. USA."

Devastated by war and suicide bombings, Israel's once-burgeoning tourism industry is changing tactics, marketing counterterrorism and solidarity as reasons to visit the Jewish state. The targets of this pitch are evangelical Christian and Jewish solidarity groups, adventure tourists with a hankering for anti-terrorism training, and Jewish professionals eager to take tales of military checkpoint crossings and army intelligence briefings back home.

"It doesn't make sense to compete with the sun and sand of the Riviera in France and ignore the real question of terror," said Israel's Tourism Minister Benny Elon, whose predecessor, Rehavam Zeevi, was assassinated by Palestinian gunmen at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Jerusalem in 2001. "We had to change the whole system and way of seeing things."

Three years ago, before the worst violence of the Palestinian uprising, Israel ended its best tourism year on record with a millennium visit by Pope John Paul II and swanky new hotel openings. More than 2.5 million visitors spent more than $US3 billion that year, according to Tourism Ministry records.

This year, the Government was giving gas masks to its few intrepid hotel guests in preparation for the invasion of Iraq and confronting suicide bombings at cafes and on buses. "It was the worst period for tourism since the establishment of Israel," conceded Mr Elon.

That's when Mr Elon, a rabbi who leads the country's most hawkish political party, Moledet (Homeland), embarked on a campaign to cultivate a new breed of tourist.

The majority of people visiting Jerusalem these days are religious people, said Tal Rabina from the Jerusalem Tourism Campaign. "They are not afraid. They saved the industry."

While Jews still make up the largest percentage of tourists, the new campaigns also heavily solicit evangelical Christians, playing to their interest in the region's religious history.

Israel is airing its message on Christian radio stations, sending emails and dispatching recruiters to evangelical churches with slogans such as "Don't put your soul on hold."

"We stand for Israel 100 per cent, and we want them to know that," said Placido Soliven, a San Diego real estate broker who attended a Christian solidarity gathering of 3000 people from around the world in Jerusalem in October. Mr Soliven said he also came "to bless" a West Bank Jewish settlement with an $US80,000 ($A107,000) cheque from Christian supporters.

Meanwhile, the US State Department has posted a travel advisory on its website that is a national tourism industry's nightmare: "The Department of State warns US citizens to defer travel to Israel . . . Ongoing violence has caused numerous civilian deaths and injuries, including some American tourists, students and residents."

Last month, a gunman shot at tourists at a crossing on the Israeli-Jordanian border, killing an Ecuadoran and injuring four others. The incident was unusual in that foreign tourists have not been targeted during the uprising, although several have been killed.

Israel's Tourism Ministry reported about 852,000 tourist entries during the first 10 months of this year, an increase from the 708,000 recorded during the same period last year, but far short of previous highs of well over 2 million.